


Venerations

by Intent_To_Stay



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Microfic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Religion, Shinto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-03 20:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12755709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Intent_To_Stay/pseuds/Intent_To_Stay
Summary: familial piety, folk catholicism, and confucian ethics walk into a barthe bartender says, "wow another shitty character study?"





	Venerations

"I'm telling you, it's a good offering."

Hanzo sighs. He drops into a seiza next to Genji, ducks his head to the shrine and then just as quickly disregards it. "Rice wine is traditional."

"And gross." Genji grins. He's strewn about and haphazard, like clothes thrown off in the middle of the night without a care for where they fall. "Boba tea is better."

Hanzo scoffs. "The kami are not interested in taste. It is the sentiment which matters."

Genji nods. "Exactly, brother."

Hanzo shakes his head. He didn't come here to argue about theology. "You were missed this evening."

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, I just had the weirdest experience. . ."

* * *

 

Hanzo never gave as much veneration to spirits as he did to his family. He knelt at ceremonies, said hollow words as offerings, attended to shrines with all the diligence required of the heir to a criminal empire.

(A lot more diligence than one would normally expect.)

Genji used to joke that he was too Confucian to be a Yakuza. Hanzo found it annoying once. Ironic now.

He killed his brother and abandoned his family. If Confucians had a sin, it would be that.

* * *

 

There is no propriety in hollow worship, elders tell him. Hanzo can’t bring himself to care.

Hanzo allows himself to preform minimally in this one area. Diligent, but minimal. Light incense in the mornings. Place offerings of salt and rice in the evening. The same incense every day. The same offering every night. He presides over the seasonal purification rituals once he turns sixteen, and he organizes them to be perfect. Every single one. Regular and measured. Proper.

Guests and business partners praise his piety. 

He skips the daily misogi, even though elder sisters recommend it. It is like making a bed no one will ever see—he will do wrong by the very next day, and have nothing to show for it.

Genji is the one who looks to the gods, who listens to stories, who invests himself in contemplation of the mystical. He’ll spend a whole week occupying himself with nothing but religion and then not touch upon the concept for another six months. He brushes his teeth during misogi. He’ll bring whatever is left at the bottom of his bottle and sprawl before a shrine in the dead of night.

Hanzo tells him that would anger the kami more than avoidance in such a state. Genji tells him to go get laid.

 Lazy. Erratic. 

When he bows his head in prayer, he means it to the bottom of his soul.

 It's a weightless dedication that leaves Hanzo feeling small and transparent.

* * *

 

Hanzo gives his father a Shinto funeral. He wears black and collects the ashes. He greets brothers and sisters and business partners. His face is numb through the whole affair, his words hollow, his hands clumsy. People praise his piety.

The funeral is proper and diligent, just as with every other ceremony Hanzo has organized.

Genji does not attend.

**Author's Note:**

> tbh this is 100% inspired by my violence nation and religion class at school and im not shinto so i might get things wrong but im also not catholic so this will be a wild ride in the future
> 
> if you have a particular character or concept youd like, let me know bc im not that creative!!


End file.
